Wheelchairs generally offer a device for individuals to move from one area to another area when they are injured, sick or are otherwise incapable of walking themselves. In some situations, such individuals, particularly those in nursing homes, may spend a large part of their days in wheelchairs. In these circumstances, it is often important from a therapeutic standpoint to provide comfort and support while these individuals are in the wheelchair for extended periods of time. To avoid fatigue, numbness, and general discomfort, wheelchairs are designed to provide comfort and support to an individual's lower body, back and upper body parts, such as the arms. In particular, for proper arm support and comfort, it is important to provide appropriately positioned arm rests attached to the wheelchairs.
It is also important that arm rests provide good stability as the arm rests are often used by individuals to maneuver into and out of the wheelchairs. Individuals often put a large amount of their weight onto the arm rests when positioning themselves and, therefore, the arm rests must be sturdy enough to support an individual's weight. In fact, in some circumstances, therapists may even use the arm rests on wheelchairs as a tool for helping individuals to exercise their arms and to gain strength in their upper bodies. Thus, for these reasons, it is necessary that the arm rests are able to remain in a fixed position and are strong enough to support an individual's weight.
Maximum support and stability is provided by wheelchairs having an arm rest in a full-length position. This position provides support for the lower forearm, generally from the elbow to the wrist area, with the hands of the individuals being able to hang down from the end of the arm rest in a natural, resting position. While there is no specific industry standard, for most wheelchairs that are commercially available, the length of the arm rest in a full-length wheelchair is generally about 13-14 inches in length. The arm rest is generally located about 2-3 inches from the front of the wheelchair, such that the arm rest is not flush with the front of the wheelchair. Instead, the arm rest is positioned a short distance from the front of the wheelchair to provide a comfortable, natural position for a user's arms. This full-length position provides the most comfort and support for a user when the user is in a natural sitting position in the wheelchair.
However, the full-length position offers some disadvantages when it comes to being able to access certain items that are typically used by people on a day-to-day basis. For example, when a wheelchair user wishes to use a desk or table, it is often the case that the arms of the wheelchair make it impossible for the user to get close enough to the table to eat, write, work, etc. at the desk or table. Thus, the arms of the wheelchair in the full-length position sometimes create obstacles for wheelchair users. Wheelchair users typically find themselves having to arrange their wheelchairs in a less than desirable or comfortable orientation to position themselves to be able to access the desk or table. In other scenarios, wheelchair users are often forced to adapt to finding a different way to eat, write, work, etc. altogether than at a desk or table. This makes what should be a somewhat routine activity a much more troublesome undertaking.
To make such access to desks and tables easier, wheelchair makers offer a variation on the full-length position, specifically known as a desk-length arm rest. With these “desk length” wheelchairs, the length of the arm rest is generally about 9-10 inches—or about 4-5 inches shorter than the full-length arm rests. Additionally, the arm rest in a desk-length wheelchair is generally located about 6-7 inches from the front of the wheelchair, such that the arm rest is about an additional 4 inches back from the full-length position. This allows a user of the wheelchair to access a desk or table when the wheelchair has desk-length arm rests.
In some embodiments, the arms on both the full-length and desk-length wheelchairs may be permanently attached or may be removable. Wheelchairs having permanent arms may have the arms welded in place. Alternatively, removable wheelchair arms can be removed and transferred to different wheelchairs. For example, for a wheelchair having an arm with a full-length arm rest, the arm may be removed and substituted with an arm having a desk-length arm rest. The removable arms include mechanisms for connecting and releasing the arms in the wheelchair, typically by sliding the vertical tube members of the arms into locking elements in the wheelchair. In some wheelchair models, the arms may be capable of being flipped or swung back to a position that allows a user to easily transfer on and off the seat of the wheelchair. These “swing back,” or “flip back,” wheelchairs include a flip back arm release that releases the arms and allows the arms to swing back toward the back portion of the wheelchair and, once a user has been seated, then swings forward again to reconnect to the wheelchair. In these flip-back models, the arms may also be permanent or removable, and may have either full-length or desk-length arm rests.
Thus, to accommodate individuals who use wheelchairs having full-length arm rests and wheelchairs having desk-length arm rests, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities must purchase and store both types of wheelchairs, or at least both types of wheelchair arms. This increases the cost and space needed for purchasing and storing both types of wheelchairs and/or wheelchair arms. Additionally, healthcare personnel must spend time moving individuals from one wheelchair type to another, or removing and transferring wheelchair arms from one wheelchair to another. In order to reduce the inventory needed to accommodate users of both types of wheelchairs and to reduce the personnel time needed to move individuals from one type of wheelchair to another (or arms from one wheelchair to another), it would be desirable to have a single wheelchair having an arm rest that could be adjusted based on a particular user's needs.
In particular, it would be desirable to provide users with the flexibility and convenience of providing a wheelchair that has arm rests that may easily be adjusted between full-length and desk-length positions (and vice versa). This would eliminate the need to move individuals, or wheelchair arms, from one type of wheelchair to another, a maneuver that may be inconvenient (if not very difficult) for some individuals. It also allows individuals who regularly use wheelchairs to avoid having to make daily decisions as to whether to play cards, eat, write, etc. based on whether they wish to go through the difficulty of having to move to another type of wheelchair—a task that becomes more difficult the older or infirm an individual becomes. Providing a single wheelchair having adjustable arm rests offers individuals who use wheelchairs more independence and personal dignity when deciding how, when and where to conduct their daily activities. This also provides doctors, therapists and other healthcare workers with more options when deciding whether and what type of wheelchair to recommend to their patients, as current wheelchairs are either of the full-length position or desk-length position (but not both).
Therefore, a need exists to provide improved wheelchair devices for addressing the above-mentioned issues.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.